


and baby makes four

by daltonacademyfightclub



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Adoption, Darkest Timeline Seth situation, Future Fic, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:51:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5216837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daltonacademyfightclub/pseuds/daltonacademyfightclub
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seth didn’t quite expect to be thirty-five and in a polyamorous relationship with his former wrestling tag team partners (and rivals), but life threw curveballs like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Seth

For a lot of relationships, having children is the natural next step after getting married. Seth had always envisioned being married to some nice girl, settling down in either Florida or California (it used to be Iowa, to be by his parents, but his career changed that), and having a house full of children that hopefully didn’t have his nose nor his laugh.

He didn’t quite expect to be thirty-five and in a polyamorous relationship with his former wrestling tag team partners (and rivals), but life threw curveballs like that.

Still, Seth found himself craving the pitter-patter of little feet in the house. Ever since a botched leg surgery left him on the sidelines permanently, boredom and loneliness tended to consume his waking hours when his boys were away. Sure, there was the never-ending string of new recruits at the Performance Center that he was in charge of managing, but none of them had yet to form a strong connection with him in his three years on the job. His friends in the business were still in the _actual_ business, and at the end of the day, he didn’t feel like he had much purpose in life.

“We’ll be back in two days, baby boy,” Roman assured him over Skype from where he and Dean were in the United Arab Emirates touring. “I wanted to talk to you about something before I bring it up to Dean, though. I’m not sure how he would react.”

“What do you want to talk about?” Seth asked, crossing his legs underneath him gingerly.

“I was wondering how you felt about the three of us adopting.”

The floor fell out from under Seth like Roman had read his mind. His mouth felt dry. “Adopting?”

“If you don’t want children, I don’t know Dean’s stance on it yet and I’m sure he’d understand, and I still see Joelle on a regular basis when I see you -” Roman began to ramble, trying to explain himself quickly.

“No! No, not _no_ , I don’t want kids, but no, I _do_ want kids,” Seth corrected himself. “I was actually afraid to ask you guys about it, but since I’d be home all the time, at least one parent would be with them at all times, y’know?”

“Yeah, I feel you.” Roman stopped shifting in his seat for a second on the screen, looking like he was trying to figure out how to phrase something in the kindest way possible. “You do know that you still have a place in the WWE, right, babe? Hunter’s offer to have you be a manager or valet still stands. You just can’t take anymore bumps.”

Seth smiled a little bitterly. “Selling bumps is the best part of wrestling.”

Roman chuckled, shaking his head. “Always with the drama,” he said, repeating what he’d said many times over in the past. “I’ll wait until we both get home to you to talk to Dean. You’re a lot better at explaining things to him than I am.”

“I’m just that good,” Seth said smugly. “I miss you two so much. Friday can’t come soon enough.”

“And neither can you,” Roman countered with a wink, “at least as far as I can tell from that video you sent me last night.”

“I just miss every part of you,” Seth replied, unaffected and grinning. “Come back home to me, big guy. You and Dean belong here with me.”

“We’ll be home shortly. Make sure that the fridge is stocked up with a lot of those low-carb energy drinks you like,” Roman continued, now mirroring Seth’s expression devilishly. “It’s going to be a long first night.”

* * *

The first night after Dean and Roman got back to Florida was just as long as Roman had predicted. So long, in fact, that the three of them didn’t even consider getting out of bed until one in the afternoon.

“Let’s make popcorn chicken and waffles,” Dean suggested, his face pressed against Roman’s chest. “I think I saw the chicken in the freezer last night, and the dry mix is in the pantry.”

Seth wrinkled his nose from where he was wedged behind Dean, spooning him. “I don’t think I bought more syrup, but I’ll have to check.”

“We’ll deal with the syrup thing later,” Roman rumbled, his voice obviously still shot from both the tour and the three of them’s earlier personal activities. “Let Seth get up first - actually, Seth, baby, you want me to carry you? Is your leg acting up?”

Dean smirked. “He’ll make you carry him either way, Ro, you know that.”

Seth blushed, not denying it. “Be quiet, I’m fragile.”

Dean pouted at him dramatically, sticking his lower lip out as far as it would go. “My poor baby,” he cooed, flipping over suddenly and scooping Seth up, lifting him off the bed. “My poor sweet baby Sethie.”

Seth smiled and grunted simultaneously, wrapping his arms around Dean’s shoulders to brace himself. “You love your Sethie though.”

“I do,” Dean agreed, looking back at Roman, who was still lying in bed and trying not to burst out laughing behind his hand. “To the kitchen?”

“To the kitchen,” Roman repeated, getting out of bed slowly, stretching on the side. “Put him down on the counter so he’ll stay still, babe.”

“Hey!” Seth exclaimed as Dean laughed and nodded.

Seth found himself stuck on the counter (“if you jump down, that’s too much pressure on your foot,” Dean had insisted) while the other two got started on making brunch.

“That’s such a funny word,” Dean mused. “ _Brrr_ unch. Why not just call it lunch? You don’t even have to call it an ‘early lunch’ or a ‘late breakfast’, just call a spade a spade and call brunch lunch.”

Roman and Seth shared a knowing look. Dean was in a good mood if he was letting his mind bounce around like that without a filter. “You doin’ alright over there, Dean-o?” Roman asked from where he was greasing up the waffle iron. “Sure are chatty today.”

Dean saddled over to him, tugging Roman’s ponytail lightly to make him turn his head. “Thought you liked chatty me.”

“I do.”

Dean kissed him on the cheek. “Good.”

Seth crossed his legs on his perch. “Y’know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you guys were trying to keep me over here so you could keep all of yourselves _to_ yourselves.”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Dean groused. “We’re just making our favorite Performance Center mentor -”

“And boyfriend.” Roman chimed in.

“ _And_ boyfriend some lunch.” Dean walked back to the counter and kissed Seth. “You know you’re due for another checkup next month, right?”

“Yes, mother,” Seth teased, hearing the microwave beep with the first round of chicken ready. “I think the chicken is ready.”

“You know what,” Dean said before kissing him again, “I think you’re right.”

Twenty minutes later, the three of them were eating in the living room, Seth sitting across Roman’s lap in the armchair and Dean spread out on the couch. The sugar-free (because of _course_ it was if Seth did the shopping) syrup was next to the remote on the coffee table. All in all, the scene was a perfect depiction of a lazy day.

Seth could feel Roman getting restless underneath him after he finished eating, though. _Better now than never,_ Seth figured, clearing his throat to make the other two men look at him. “Dean, baby? We need to talk.”

“Yeah?” Dean replied cautiously, leaning forward past his own empty plate on the coffee table to mute the TV. “Is this a three-way conversation, or…?”

“Yeah,” Roman said, turning Seth in his lap to face forward so they were both facing Dean on the couch. “It’s just a question though, don’t worry. It’s a good question, okay?”

Dean visibly relaxed, putting his arms on his thighs to focus on the conversation at hand. “Okay, shoot.”

“Alright,” Seth began, looking at Roman out of the corner of his eye for guidance. “What would you, uh… how do you feel about the three of us adopting a kid?”

Dean pulled back a little bit, obviously startled at this turn of events. “I don’t know if us having a kid would be best,” Dean said, sounding unusually anxious. “I mean, we’re technically not even _married_ ; what if they don’t let us?”

“They’ve let unmarried couples -”

“ _Couples_ ,” Dean repeated. “Don’t the people have to come ‘round the house to see how we interact? What if our schedule doesn’t even allow us to be here for that? What are we supposed to say?”

“We tell them the truth,” Roman said patiently. “We live in a polyamorous household. Any child who lives with us will have not one, not two, but _three_ loving fathers in their life. There will be two fathers on the adoption certificate - Seth and I - but that doesn’t make you any less of a parent, Dean. Just how like Seth would be the primary caregiver when you and I are gone, but that doesn’t make me any less of a parent either.”

“How come I wouldn’t be on the certificate?” Dean asked, hands fidgeting from already knowing the answer. “Is it… is it ‘cause I’m crazy?” The way the word fell so casually off his tongue made Seth physically wince. He moved to the couch to wrap his arms around his beloved goofball.

“Oh, no, baby,” Seth assured him, stroking his hair with his hand. Dean’s hair was so soft, light slightly because its thinness. “It’s only because Roman and I have extended family is all. It has nothing to do with you.” Seth paused for a moment, noticing that he forgot something. “And you’re _not_ crazy.”

“Definitely not, Dean.” Roman joined the two of them on the couch, taking Dean’s other side. “But we’re asking you because we want to know your opinion. If you don’t want children, it’s okay. We’d understand.”

“I-I’m just… I’m worried that I wouldn’t be a good dad,” Dean explained, almost ashamedly, looking between the two of them. “I didn’t really think that kids would be part of my ten-year plan, hell, my fifty-year plan. And then you two came along and that’s, well… it’s a possibility now.”

Roman began to rub Dean’s back, somewhat brushing Seth’s hand every time he made a full circle. “And we’re so happy about that, babe.” Roman leaned in and kissed Dean. “We love you and wouldn’t be asking this if we didn’t know that you’d be a wonderful father.”

“And, if you really want, we can pick you up some of those ‘what to expect when you’re expecting’ books, Dean,” Seth suggested. “Hell, you’ll probably be the most educated out of all of us.”

That made Dean chuckle, putting his head on Seth’s shoulder. “If you think so.”

“So whaddaya say, silly?” Seth asked. “Do you want to grow our family too?”

“Yeah,” Dean replied, nodding. “Yeah, let’s do it.”


	2. Roman

Planning for adoption was infinitely harder than Roman had thought. _I understand why more people just_ have _kids if they can,_ he thought to himself as he continued scanning documents to file away in his laptop. _It’s way easier to knock someone up by happy accident than to have a child from outside with intention._

“Babe?” Seth called from the guest room. “Can you come in here for a second?”

Roman grunted as he got up, heading down the hall to see Dean smeared with light blue paint the color of his eyes and Seth looking particularly upset.

“We’re out of painter’s tape,” Dean said cheerfully. “I wanted to go to the store to pick up some more, but Mr. No-Fun over here said that I shouldn’t go out covered in paint.”

“You look ridiculous,” Seth shot back, crossing his arms over his chest, very narrowly missing smearing himself with paint. “I’m not letting you go out in public looking like half a smurf.”

Roman couldn’t help but laugh at the mental image of Dean in Home Depot in the state he was currently in. “He’s… he’s got a point, Dean, sweetheart,” he admitted. “How’s about I run out and pick up some tape while you clean up?”

“Actually, lemme check something,” Dean said, holding up a hand to stop Roman while he dug through the bags they had picked up the week before. “Aha!” He produced another package of tape, waving it victoriously. “I knew I had more.”

“Crisis averted,” Seth said, waving a hand. “You can go back to, uh, filing, if you want, Ro.”

“Nah, I’ll stay in here with y’all two,” Roman declined with a smile. “Looks like I could be of some help making sure that the paint gets on the walls and not on this one here.” He leaned over and tousled Dean’s hair, grinning when Dean smacked at his hand to get him to cut it out.

“Let’s get you started then.” Seth handed Roman his own paintbrush before going to look for another. “There’s gotta be another around here somewh - hey!”

Roman laughed as he backed away slowly, Dean joining in when he saw the big blue stripe that now covered Seth’s ass.

* * *

It was actually Seth’s idea to cover their bases with the company before they actually went through with the actual adoption process. “Doing it this early is like we’re taking out an insurance policy on it is all,” he explained to Roman one night while simultaneously giving Dean a back massage. “We have to start planning ahead; might as well start now.”

That’s how the three of them ended up in the COO’s office in Stamford one afternoon, three men staring at one across a desk after explaining their case.

“So you do not want us to announce it on social media?” Hunter asked, crossing his wrists on the desk. “I understand that, given the nature of your relationship, that you three are private people.”

“ _Extremely_ private,” Seth emphasized. “I mean, the three of us -” Roman watched as Seth gestured around the seats at the three of them - “we’ve all done some pretty noteworthy things in our time here. We might not make ESPN, but it’d matter.”

“Well, of course it’d matter,” Hunter replied in that weirdly calm way that made Seth’s skin bristle after years of being on the receiving end. “The rest of the executives and I just wanted to make sure we all were on the same page here.”

“I don’t think your father-in-law would be entirely too pleased if word got out about our relationship in general,” Roman reminded him. “And if anyone’s talking about our kid, all of us are going to be named as parents. No exceptions.”

Hunter made a noise that Roman would have mistaken as a giggle if the word could even remotely apply to a man the size of Triple H. “You’d be surprised at the stories I’ve heard from Vince about people back in the day and what I myself have seen. Some would make even _your_ skin crawl, Dean.”

Dean managed to continue to look bored at even being in his boss’s presence. “Yeah, we’re not here for that, though,” Dean answered nonchalantly. “Maybe we can talk about that some other time, like after we file a legal agreement ‘bout this.”

“Fair enough,” Hunter said, opening a drawer on the side of his desk and pulling out three separate documents, all with blank spaces and the words “Non-Disclosure Agreement” in bold letters at the top of the first page. If Roman didn’t have a somewhat intimate understanding of backstage politics already, he would have been startled at Hunter’s pre-preparedness. “You three just read over the terms at your own leisure, sign and initial where it says, and then it’s set in stone.”

Roman saw Seth’s eyes narrow slightly out of the corner of his eye before Seth spoke. “Any chance that we can take these documents home, since it’s ‘at our leisure’?” It was almost funny how averse Seth was to following Hunter’s directions now that he wasn’t under The Authority’s thumb.

Hunter shrugged. “Up to you three. Until you came to my office today, I didn’t know that having children - well, _more_ children, in your case, Roman - was even an option for the three of you to begin with. Nothing that was said in here will leave this room. The agreements are just to make it official.”

“Then we’ll just take these home with us for right now and send them back to you when we’re finished,” Roman replied. He reached across the desk to slide all the documents together, stacking them neatly and placing them in front of him. “I think we’re done here for today, sir.”

“Pleasure doing business with you, then,” Hunter replied, standing up at the same time the other three did to shake their hands. “The company and myself wish you three nothing but the best. Having children is an exciting time in one’s life.”

“It’s exciting getting to that point as it is,” Seth said as he shook Hunter’s hand. “We’ll be in touch.”

“I’m sure we will.”

* * *

The three of them were lying in bed, curled around Roman with his laptop on his lap, looking at their options online. “I want to do this in the most ethical way possible,” Seth insisted when they began the online search. “Inside the country, everything as legal as possible, et cetera.”

The other two agreed wholeheartedly, especially considering the standards weren’t hard to maintain anyway. “I mean, we’re no Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as is, so that level of adoption kung fu is not on the table,” Dean quipped, snuggling further into Roman’s arm. “You know, we haven’t decided who’s gonna be called what yet.”

“I’m Papa,” Seth claimed, smacking his hand down on the covers like he was pressing a buzzer. “Called it.”

“I wanted to be Papa,” Dean said, disappointed, looking at Seth. “How come you get to call it? You don’t _look_ like a ‘Papa’.”

“Well, neither do you. If anyone really looks like a father, it’s Ro.” Seth gestured to him. “He has a face that practically begs to be called daddy.”

Roman snorted. “Thought we weren’t trying _that_ one out in the bedroom for a while.” He opened up a few links in new tabs. “Why can’t you both share it? Papa Dean _and_ Papa Seth. That sounds cute to me.”

“We’ll duke this out later,” Dean said in a way that Seth and Roman both knew meant that he’d think about it. “What do we have so far?”

“Well, we have a couple of state websites, this one private adoption center that actually looks kinda shifty in hindsight, so I’m clicking out of that -” which Roman did as he spoke - “and that’s about it. This one here, this one’s in Pensacola a couple of blocks away from my parents’ house. Maybe we could visit and then scope the place out ourselves.”

“Looks like someone just wants one of his mom’s home-cooked meals,” Dean thought aloud, mirroring the grin Seth shot him before Roman nudged him away. “Hey!”

“Like you don’t want my mother’s food too. Here, it’s only eleven,” Roman continued, looking at the clock. “We should be able to make the trip in a couple of hours, get a late lunch - I’m sure she has leftovers, it’s Sunday - and then visit the center. Sound good?”

“Sounds great to me,” Seth agreed, kissing Roman on the cheek before getting up to go to the closet. “Only one problem.”

“What?” Roman asked as he wrapped his arms around Dean, who was trying to force himself into Roman’s lap.

“What do you wear when you might meet your son or daughter for the first time?” He looked legitimately distressed.

“Khakis,” Dean answered seriously. “Go with khakis.”


	3. Dean

Today was the day that Dean had been waiting for for eight months. Eight months of metaphorical blood, but real sweat and tears was going to be worth it in ten minutes when they arrived at the adoption center to pick up their new little girl. “You’re shaking so hard that you’re moving the whole car, Dean-o,” Roman told him as he leaned forward from where he was with a teddy bear nearly as big as him in the backseat. “Take a couple deep breaths, okay? Everything that’s happening is good today. It’s a good day.”

“It’s the best day,” Seth said, chipper as all get out. “We’re going to meet our daughter and take her home and she’ll be _ours_ , guys.” Seth stopped at an intersection and turned to look between Dean and Roman. “Our _daughter_!”

Dean couldn’t help but chuckle at Seth’s excitement. Seth was adorable when he got all hyped up like that, a medium-sized body holding a big ball of energy. If Seth wasn’t driving at the time, Dean would have planted a big one on him then and there. “Well, we all know who’s going to spoil her rotten,” he teased, remembering that the big bear was also Seth’s idea. “I’m not bad-shaking though, I’m happy-shaking. This is the best moment of my fucking life.”

“Language,” Roman chided, clapping Dean on the shoulder. “Have to watch that tongue of yours now, you bad influence, you.”

Dean responded by sticking his tongue out at one of the loves of his life.

When they pulled into the adoption center, it took all of Dean’s power to not bumrush the door and leave the other two in the dust, despite the fact that those two were needed for identification purposes in the first place. Almost sensing Dean’s anticipation, Seth walked around the car and took Dean’s hand in his, stroking the back of the man’s palm gently with his thumb.

“Deep breaths, deep breaths,” Seth reminded him, kissing his cheek as Roman joined them, apparently opting to leave the bear in the car as a surprise.

Once they got inside, Roman went to the front desk, showing his ID to the lady before being let into a door on the same side. “Um, we’re also with him,” Dean said as he sprung up and fast-walked toward the front desk, dragging Seth with him by one hand and digging in his pocket for his own ID with the other. “He’s also on the adoption certificate, but I’m listed as another guardian on the sheet,” he explained. He and Seth put their cards underneath the window at the same time. “You can look it up.”

The receptionist, who apparently still had their file open on the computer, checked for herself and nodded. “You two can go in and follow Mr. Reigns to the playroom.” With a very quick thanks, the two of them snatched back up their things and hurried after Roman through the same door.

Much to their surprise, Roman was waiting a couple feet away on the other side. “I figured you two would be right behind me,” he said with a chuckle. “Are we all good? Everything alright up there?” he asked as he tapped on his head lightly.

“We all know that’s never entirely the case,” Dean answered with a laugh of his own. “C’mon, let’s go.”

The three of them walked together to the room that the receptionist had pointed out to Roman a minute before, Roman opening the door too slowly for Dean’s liking. _Just let me see her,_ Dean pleaded to no one in particular, feeling something well up in his that he’d never felt before. _Let me see my little girl._

Inside the playroom was a little girl, no more than five years old, with big brown eyes and blonde hair that Dean could just tell by looking at her was soft and feathery to the touch like his own. Everything about her was pure, in a way, right down to the little frilly socks that she wore with a lilac dress, which Dean was sure she was wearing because it was a special occasion. Roman moved toward her first, obviously more experienced with children as he already had Joelle, sitting down on the floor in front of her.

“Hi there,” Roman said politely, smiling at her as calmly as a man of his size could muster. “What’s your name?”

“Bethany,” the girl answered, not looking at all fazed by the fact that three strange men had just come into the room. She toyed with her hair for a moment. “Miss Ruby said that I was gon’ meet my daddy today. Are you my daddy?”

Dean felt his heart nearly melt into a puddle below him and burst out of his chest at the same time. Roman nodded, reaching out to hold her tiny hand in his own.

“I _am_ your daddy, Bethany,” Roman replied, holding her hand when she placed it in his after a moment. “But guess what? You’re actually very lucky when it comes to daddies.”

“Why?” Bethany wrinkled her nose, obviously confused.

“You get _three_ daddies. All three of us are your daddies, Bethany.” Seth apparently had sense whereas Dean did not, pulling himself out of his stunned state to manage a wave at his daughter. “You can call me Daddy. The one with the funny hair, that’s Papa Seth, and then Papa Dean has the big blue eyes.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Bethany said, sounding almost in awe as she got up from where she was sitting and walked over to Dean. Dean clutched Seth’s hand as tight as he could at his side, looking down at his daughter with the same awestruck expression on his face.

“Can I see your eyes?” she asked, tugging on the bottom of Dean’s jacket. “Please?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Dean choked out, looking at Roman and Seth for guidance (they both seemed to telepathically send him ‘well, kneel down at least’ back his way) before letting go of Seth’s hand and crouching down to the little girl’s eye level. “My eyes are alright, I guess, they’re kinda pretty…” Dean could feel himself getting pink, face heating up even more when Bethany reached out to put her hands on Dean’s cheeks, holding his face and looking at his eyes.

“ _Wow_.” Bethany sounded amazed, turning back to Roman. “They’re super blue!”

Roman chuckled and stood back up, dusting himself and walking back to Seth, who Dean could see out of the corner of his eye wrap his arm around him. “How’s about we bring you to our eye level, sweetheart? You okay with Papa Dean picking you up?”

She nodded, not taking her eyes off Dean’s as Dean scooped her up in the same way that he usually did with Seth, making her giggle and making Dean smile from ear to ear. She wrapped her arms around Dean’s neck to hold on, bumping her head with his as she did so.

“You’re so pretty, Bethany,” Seth told her, reaching forward to tuck her hair behind her ear. “And such pretty hair. Do you like braids in your hair?”

“Uh-huh!” Bethany declared, preening under Seth’s touch. Dean adjusted his hold on her a little, bouncing her slightly in his arms.

“Well,” Seth told her, “Daddy and I have long hair too, see? So we can do all kinds of braids in your hair too if you’d like us to. You can braid our hair yourself if you want.”

“Okay!” Bethany seemed delighted at that, looking around at the three of them. “Can I braid Papa Dean’s hair too?”

Dean had to stop himself from gasping when he realized a second later that he was the first one that she called her father. Roman and Seth seemed to recognize that as well, smiling at him with a mixture of doting and excitement for him before he spoke again.

“My hair’s too short for you to braid it right now, darlin’, but I promise that there’s more than enough hair to go around in this house for you to do all the braiding you could ever want. Tell you what, though,” he continued, getting an idea. “You wanna ride on my shoulders? You can hold onto my hair real tight.”

“Dean, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Seth started before seeing the grin on Dean’s face as he lifted his squealing daughter up into the air and over his shoulders so she could ride up there.

“Now, I need you to hold on tight,” Dean reminded her, holding onto her little legs just above the socks with just as much gusto. “You good up there?” he asked.

“Good!” Bethany said, and Dean could feel the tugging of little hands all the way to his scalp. _She’s got one hell of a grip,_ he noted to himself. _Might want to get her into rock climbing or something._

“Okay, the Papa Dean train is leaving the station!” He dropped into walking lunges, popping up at the top to make Bethany bounce, which only made her cheer and giggle harder than before. When he looked at Roman and Seth after popping up at one point, Roman had his phone out (likely taking pictures or video) and Seth had his hands crossed over his chest, beaming back at Dean with the brightness of a thousand suns.

“We have a surprise for you in the car, Bethany,” Seth said when Dean finally stood back up straight and took Bethany back into his arms.

“It’s a great surprise,” Roman assured her. “Papa Seth picked it out for you himself.”

“You wanna go see it?” Dean asked, putting her down when she nodded furiously, hair falling into her face. “I’ll race you there.”

As Dean tore down the hallway after his new daughter - giving her a running start, of course - to her first gift from her daddies in the car, he couldn’t imagine being anywhere but right there in the moment with the men he loved more than anything else in the world, and his daughter, who he’d fallen in love with at first sight.

 _Seth was right,_ he thought to himself as he got to the door of the center. _Today_ is _the best day._

* * *

Dean couldn’t stop tapping his foot against the floor of the cab, anxious as he watched the miles wind down from the airport to the house. While the driver didn’t seem to notice it or care, the man sitting next to him nudged his side to get him to quit.

 _Calm down,_ Roman mouthed at him, both of them looking at each other from the corner of their eyes. But Dean knew that Roman knew that Dean was far too excited and anxious to get home to their little princess after being away on tour yet again.

The day that Roman and Dean had to go back on tour was the three-month anniversary of what Seth called ‘second birthday’, the day that the three of them met Beth. The three of them had explained to her their (meaning Roman and Dean’s) weird travel patterns because of their jobs, but hadn’t told her anything in particular about exactly what it is that the two of them did, only that they were athletes.

(“Don’t call yourself an athlete,” Seth had said with a snort. “You two are _sports entertainers_ ," he said in an overly-affected voice that sounded oddly like Stephanie McMahon with a head cold, "and don’t let The Authority hear you say otherwise.”

“Who’s that?” Beth asked in return, looking up at her Daddy from where she sat in his lap.

“Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it, sweetheart,” Roman replied, kissing the top of her head. “Don’t worry ‘bout them.”)

Those three months that they’d had with her before they had to go to work again was the best three months of Dean’s life. For the first week she’d been home, Beth couldn’t sleep in her bedroom alone, terrified of the dark and unfamiliar in her new home. Her three dads took her into their bed, putting her in the middle of their dogpile and being careful not to move around and disturb their new perfect harmony. Day by day, Beth grew more comfortable and was able to move back to her room with the comforting knowledge that Daddy, Papa Seth, and Papa Dean were right down the hall if she needed them.

Dean never left his daughter’s side if he didn’t absolutely have to, knowing that this would be another thing he’d miss most about traveling when it was time to go. All the piggyback rides, the cuddles that turned into impromptu naptimes on the couch, and reading lessons were going to make it slightly easier for Dean to detach himself from his personal life when he had to go back out to California with Roman once their vacation was over.

Still, it broke Dean’s heart a little when Seth and Beth dropped the two of them off at the airport and Beth was trying to be a big girl and not cry as she kissed two of her daddies goodbye.

They Skyped every night, the four of them talking about their days - the two men carefully, as they’d agreed to not have Beth watch wrestling until she was old enough to understand how it _really_ worked - and letting the little girl know exactly how many days it would be until everyone was back together at home. Last night, she’d been ecstatic. (Seth had texted them later that it had been nigh impossible for him to get her into bed as well.)

The cab pulled up outside of the house, Dean just barely spotting a tiny blonde head drop down from the front window before Beth ran outside to greet them, Seth hot on her heels.

“Papa Dean! Daddy!” she cried out happily as she flung herself into Dean’s waiting arms while Roman got the luggage out of the trunk and paid the driver.

“We’re home, princess,” Dean said, kissing the side of her head, trying to keep himself composed. “Have you been a good girl for Papa Seth?”

“As good as can be,” Seth cut in, leaning forward to give Dean a kiss before doing the same with Roman and helping him with the bags. “Here, let me take a suitcase off your hands, Ro -”

“I’ve got them, babe,” Roman assured him, walking up to Dean and putting his head over his shoulder to get a kiss on the cheek from Beth. “Look at how pretty my princess is.”

“She’s the prettiest princess, isn’t she?” Dean asked as they walked inside, setting Beth down in the foyer as Roman and Seth agreed.

“An’ Daddy and Papa Seth and you are… are the prettiest princes ever too.” Beth looked satisfied with that answer, running into the living room and jumping on the couch, looking at Dean with a cheeky grin when he followed her in.

“No jumping on the couch!” Seth called from the other room, having heard the soft _thump_ of the little girl against the furniture. “Daddy and I will be in in a second.”

“You better not be having fun in there without me,” Dean called back, sitting next to Beth on the couch before pulling her into his lap and tickling her sides until she giggled happily.

Seth and Roman came in a couple seconds later, Seth riding on Roman’s back looking particularly smug before getting dropped off on the couch next to Dean with Roman taking the other side. Seth immediately curled himself up into Dean’s side, making Dean’s heart swell up happily in his chest as he remembered just how good it felt to have both of his partners by his side. Meanwhile, Roman was running his fingers through Beth’s hair, untangling a couple of knots with the greatest of ease.

For a long time, Dean thought that he was going to remain as one, the loneliest number. Then he doubled his luck with the loves of his life. Now, with his daughter making them absolutely perfect at four, he’d never felt so whole in his life.


End file.
